Tribes and Partners Coordinate Efforts to Conserve New England Cottontail in MassachusettsUSFWS

Tribes and Partners Coordinate Efforts to Conserve New England Cottontail in Massachusetts

How do you tell a New England cottontail from an Eastern cottontail? That was the focus of a recent training session that the Service’s Eastern Massachusetts National Wildlife Refuge Complex and the Ecological Services New England Field Office hosted in March as part of efforts to conserve the New England cottontail. Along with Service field biologists, natural resource personnel with the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), Massachusetts Division of Fish and Wildlife, Wildlife Management Institute, and Massachusetts Audubon spent a day in the field learning how to collect and identify New England cottontail by taking blood samples and other measurements. The sampling is part of a multi-state effort to restore and conserve New England cottontail habitat to try to pre-empt the need to list the species under the Endangered Species Act. The two Tribes attending the training have been involved with previous surveys, and now will play a more involved role in the effort to restore New England cottontail habitat in Massachusetts.